Black plastic bags of human body parts swimming in blood are found in various places in the city of Seoul in South Korea. Police investigates them and soon sees they belong to various victims and are "mixed" together in order to confuse the minds of those that are investigating. A mysteriously silent and beautiful female becomes number one lead for them and target of police investigation and questions and the more the film runs, the more we get closer to the truth and revealing the identity of the violent killer. Much more cannot be said about Korean film maker Yoon-Hyun Chang's disturbing serial killer thriller Tell Me Something (1999) without spoiling its many surprises and plot turns coming.
Unfortunately, this film, in my opinion, and after my first viewing, has more flaws and holes than real merits in it. First of all, it is sadly too long as it runs 117 minutes in NTSC speed. That would be okay if the film had very interesting, multi-leveled, characters in it that would make the whole ride much faster and more fluent to sit through, naturally. Now the characters don't develop too interestingly and also the film hasn't got any real message to deliver and thus is "only" a serial killer horror film, not much else. Many have compared this to the US film maker David Fincher's masterful tale of wickedness living inside ourselves and our society, Seven (1995), but that film is not only visually much more stunning and brilliant than Tell Me Something but also has its message and themes to make the whole piece much bigger and more noteworthy. I felt very bored during many scenes of this Korean film as they don't give anything to the film as a whole. They should have shortened the film by some 30 minutes without harming the end result.
The typical "traumatic childhood thing" feels also pretty stupid and like it was just fastly written to give some kind of a motivation for the killer's act. Traumatic childhood and horrors related to it is a very serious subject matter in cinema and in a film like this, it feels a little unnecessary and also even repellent. If they had given a more interesting and different explanation for the killer's acts, it would be more interesting to watch even in this too long form.
The positive things are also there, fortunately, and especially the few shock scenes (like the head on the seat of the car) are truly effective and done with great fast editing and merciless elements on the soundtrack. Worth mentioning is also the "kubrickesque" elevator scene that has a remarkably effective soundtrack behind it and making it stronger. The silent scenes and especially the face expressions and eyes of the female lead are also very impressive and once again show how much more powerful cinema can be without words, silently. Also the scene inside some industrial building (followed by a brutal murder) is effective and uses the daytime setting, empty room and distant sounds in the sountrack very effectively and gives also a strong feel of loneliness in such a big city. If they only had wanted to give us more than just murder mystery with this film of their's..
The graphic horror elements are very strong in this film, and the nastiness of them even surprised me. The film opens with a grisly depiction of dissection and nauseatingly realistic body parts and blood, which are shown for several seconds in close ups without any other reason. Similar scenes follow and the film also includes one of the nastiest highway multi car accidents I've ever seen, and that is definitely an unusually horrific scene! Also, equally sudden and nasty is the elevator scene and these scenes involving bags full of body parts are as graphic and slippery as they just can be so the film makers seemingly wanted to deliver plenty of gore with this film. It all comes also a little gratuitous as sometimes the real suspense and other more noteworthy horror elements suffer and leave on the background due to these easier scenes. The film includes also one brutal killing that definitely belongs to the mentioned category of being noticably calculated. The scene is distantly close to the "impalement killing" in Japanese Toshihara Ikeda's disturbing masterpiece Evil Dead Trap (1988), a film that has wonderful soundtrack and equally wonderful (and gruesome) surreal imagery and terror atmosphere and on any level greater film than Tell Me Something.
Tell Me Something has potential but doesn't use it as near as completely as would have been preferred. It will probably please most "slasher and horror fans" that like their films bloody and mysterious, but if you're looking for a more intelligent and effective (both mentally and physically) piece, then it will probably come as a more or less slight disappointment as it came to me. Still, due to its few merits and overall Eastern status (meaning there are NOT any stupid lightening "entertainment" elements usually found in, for example, modern Hollywood horror films) make this to 4/10 category. And with capital G I would add.
Unfortunately, this film, in my opinion, and after my first viewing, has more flaws and holes than real merits in it. First of all, it is sadly too long as it runs 117 minutes in NTSC speed. That would be okay if the film had very interesting, multi-leveled, characters in it that would make the whole ride much faster and more fluent to sit through, naturally. Now the characters don't develop too interestingly and also the film hasn't got any real message to deliver and thus is "only" a serial killer horror film, not much else. Many have compared this to the US film maker David Fincher's masterful tale of wickedness living inside ourselves and our society, Seven (1995), but that film is not only visually much more stunning and brilliant than Tell Me Something but also has its message and themes to make the whole piece much bigger and more noteworthy. I felt very bored during many scenes of this Korean film as they don't give anything to the film as a whole. They should have shortened the film by some 30 minutes without harming the end result.
The typical "traumatic childhood thing" feels also pretty stupid and like it was just fastly written to give some kind of a motivation for the killer's act. Traumatic childhood and horrors related to it is a very serious subject matter in cinema and in a film like this, it feels a little unnecessary and also even repellent. If they had given a more interesting and different explanation for the killer's acts, it would be more interesting to watch even in this too long form.
The positive things are also there, fortunately, and especially the few shock scenes (like the head on the seat of the car) are truly effective and done with great fast editing and merciless elements on the soundtrack. Worth mentioning is also the "kubrickesque" elevator scene that has a remarkably effective soundtrack behind it and making it stronger. The silent scenes and especially the face expressions and eyes of the female lead are also very impressive and once again show how much more powerful cinema can be without words, silently. Also the scene inside some industrial building (followed by a brutal murder) is effective and uses the daytime setting, empty room and distant sounds in the sountrack very effectively and gives also a strong feel of loneliness in such a big city. If they only had wanted to give us more than just murder mystery with this film of their's..
The graphic horror elements are very strong in this film, and the nastiness of them even surprised me. The film opens with a grisly depiction of dissection and nauseatingly realistic body parts and blood, which are shown for several seconds in close ups without any other reason. Similar scenes follow and the film also includes one of the nastiest highway multi car accidents I've ever seen, and that is definitely an unusually horrific scene! Also, equally sudden and nasty is the elevator scene and these scenes involving bags full of body parts are as graphic and slippery as they just can be so the film makers seemingly wanted to deliver plenty of gore with this film. It all comes also a little gratuitous as sometimes the real suspense and other more noteworthy horror elements suffer and leave on the background due to these easier scenes. The film includes also one brutal killing that definitely belongs to the mentioned category of being noticably calculated. The scene is distantly close to the "impalement killing" in Japanese Toshihara Ikeda's disturbing masterpiece Evil Dead Trap (1988), a film that has wonderful soundtrack and equally wonderful (and gruesome) surreal imagery and terror atmosphere and on any level greater film than Tell Me Something.
Tell Me Something has potential but doesn't use it as near as completely as would have been preferred. It will probably please most "slasher and horror fans" that like their films bloody and mysterious, but if you're looking for a more intelligent and effective (both mentally and physically) piece, then it will probably come as a more or less slight disappointment as it came to me. Still, due to its few merits and overall Eastern status (meaning there are NOT any stupid lightening "entertainment" elements usually found in, for example, modern Hollywood horror films) make this to 4/10 category. And with capital G I would add.